Mahopac Firefighters Get Statewide Award for Life-Saving Roles

Two Mahopac volunteer firefighters are at the Edgewood Resort in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., today where they will receive the “Firefighters of the Year” award from the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York.

Captain William J. Bahr and Second Assistant Chief Brian J. Lena of the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department are being recognized for their role in saving an elderly couple from their second-floor bedroom when a fire broke out in their home last fall.

For their life-saving roles, the two in mid-June were honored by the Hudson Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association at its annual awards ceremony at Lake George, and in late-June by the Putnam County Volunteer Firemen’s Association at Brewster fire headquarters.

“Unless you experience firsthand the way that volunteer firefighters instantly go into this mode, this zone, a state of mind, it is very difficult to describe what they did,” Mahopac Chief Ron Goodrow said today in a statement released by the Firemen’s Association.

“I am very proud of my members and officers. I read somewhere that volunteer firefighters don’t like to be called heroes; that we just like a good ‘thank you’ once in awhile. Well, I am their chief, and I have decided to call them heroes whether they like it or not.”